No System for Striking

Vladimir, in a rare moment, talked to Jake quite a bit about striking instead of just hitting him a lot. I was able to listen in, so I will try my best to paraphrase/reinterpret what he said. The two phrases that really got me are "There is no system for striking" and "our bodies do not belong to us". The first makes very clear sense with respect to striking, and the second is a bit more ethereal.

Not having a system for striking seems obvious. Strikes are an energetic concept that require a genuine approach instead of pre-fabricated techniques. The exercises in Systema approach striking in various manners, but what is important is simply optimal energy transference (and in taking strikes, optimal energy dispersion). A lot of concepts get thrown around with respect to Systema strikes such as "heavy hands", "full hands", "being at a comfortable distance", or just "being relaxed".

These concepts are well and fine, but they dance around the very bottom issue of energy transference. Watching the subtleties of Vladimir's structure when striking compared to someone unexperienced is amazing. There is no shock reverberation traveling back into his body--oftentimes he will just use an arm to strike (no movement in the shoulders, hips, etc.), and if you can't see his arm, you would never know he was hitting somebody (well, obviously the guy flailing to the ground as a result of the strike gives it away). At the highest level, striking is a uniform and appropriate mixture of gentleness and power, sensitivity and force, and relaxation and tension. He mentioned that when one learns how to strike well, they don't need to be strong to affect somebody with a strike. This is purely on a physical impact level. Add in the dimension of psychology to striking, and there are no foreseeable boundaries to effectiveness.

What he said about our bodies not belonging to us ties these concepts together. Our bodies are made up of material just like anything else in the universe. We cannot control them to the extent that we would like--we constantly pester Mother Nature for her secrets. The rocks just sit, the sun just shines, the ocean just moves--why can't we just hit someone?

Vladimir said that striking is just natural, but we try to possess it, make it our own, create systems for it, etc. I can feel the unnecessary tension in my own strikes, I restrict the energy by trying to force a stronger impact onto my partner. My muscle fibers contract and expand in all the wrong ways as I deliver the strike--myself thinking that I am in control of my body and all its inner functions. Yet fortunately my heart beats without my consent, and my digestive system does its duties without asking for my permission. Striking can work in the same manner--there does not need to be a thought process or technique involved, just hit. Structure, alignment, breathing--yes, stay aware of these things. What I find funny about myself is that I needed to intellectually learn the obvious about striking: keep the structure so bones don't get broken, don't strike hard surfaces with hard surfaces (e.g. knuckles and forehead), and all those things that say that I am too out of touch with my body and its nature to simply just strike someone.

But I will keep trying until I can get out of the way of myself and just let my body do the work.

Respect the Distance

I've had the pleasure of being at Vladimir's school up in Toronto for the past few days. As always: there has been a flood of information to take in and plenty to think about with respect to future training.

One topic that I had the chance to talk with Vlad about was striking distance. I might have posted on this a little bit before--but working with Vladimir directly really drives the concept into it's full solidity. This distance is a "comfortable" distance for doing work, in this case striking. Vladimir said that people aren't typically used to this middle ground--they will either fight with at least some amount of fear or with a lot of aggression. Some will fight in sparring mode: staying a safe distance then moving in quickly for a kick or a jab. Others will fight aggressively, closing the distance, taking the fight to the ground, or overpowering the other person with strikes. In order to be effective with either of these two extremes and everything in between, the distance must be respected.

The specific drill we worked on today was a progression from some arm-only strikes. We ended with one person trying to grab and the other keeping the comfortable distance while doing a few quick and hopefully effective strikes. This distance is kept no matter whether the opponent is backing off or pursuing. In other words, keep this middle distance until the work is done. This distance is best seen by walking around your partner while they stand still and placing your fist on them. A good understanding of structural alignment and also of impact transferrance in strikes helps with this. By placing your fist on your partner with proper structure (straight spine, relaxed shoulders, not reaching for the strike, but not too close either), one can get a good idea of what will be an effective distance for striking. I know there are a lot of concepts involved in this concept of "middle distance", but the best way to describe it is just to find the most comfortable position.

Vladimir referred to this as "the warrior's distance". A warrior will fight at this distance because it allows the most freedom from too much fear or aggression. Two warriors, fighting against eachother, will still fight at this distance, and one will eventually prevail for whatever reason.

Sticks And Sticks Will Break My Bones

I brought the staff in today so we could have some fun with a capital F. Ricky didn't show up until later so Fabian and I started off with some staff striking warmups. Taking strikes with the staff is worlds apart from taking strikes with the fist. Staffs hurt the bones, bring sharper pain to the muscles, have a different effect on the nervous system. There is also a little more trust required of one's partner--that a shot to the chest won't bounce up and hit the chin or the neck, for example. We didn't hit too intensely though--at the very hardest only striking a little bit harder than what would allow the person being struck to keep their composure.

This striking drill gradually became a movement drill. We both started moving around while one person would get struck. The point of this drill was not so much evasion as it was moving the body in such a way that the strike would be the least damaging. This is another parameter to explore with respect to getting struck by anything--damage control.

That Guy Hits on Everyone

Today we began with some breathing/body warmups. We started out with one step per inhale/exhale (step/inhale, step/exhale) as we walked around the room. Making our way up to five or six steps per inhale/exhale, we went into a light jog. We peaked at ten steps per inhale/exhale and climbed back down to four steps. We talked briefly about the effects experienced during the warmup. Involuntary upper costal breathing (breathing only into the upper parts of the lung in a desperate attempt for more oxygen) seemed to happen to all of us a little bit in the higher stages. We all also begin to feel slight discomfort due to oxygen deprivation when jogging at six to seven steps per inhale/exhale.

Learning to relax in this drill is so much more than just a muscular, skeletal, or psychological concept. As is often repeated in Systema, breathing is not just the mechanical action of the lungs inhaling and exhaling. The inhale and exhale literally extend into the entire body. A proper breath involves physiological efficiency well past the scope of lung operation. The body must be relaxed in an internal level. Training on this level requires a little bit more sensitivity, but is hardly outside anyone's capabilities. Simple exercises such as feeling the pulse in certain parts of the body or performing a single pushup can open doors into the internal mechanics of the body.

After our warmup, we started into some striking work. There were four of us today, so we paired off and began with a basic fist and body alignment drill. One partner stands still while the other walks around that partner, placing their fists on different parts the person's body. This drill is great for feeling one's own structure and form with respect to the person they are striking. The endless contours of the body require that each part of the body be struck genuinely. After the fist placement drill, we started to do some fist pushing. This validates the concept of structure even further. One should try to push with the fist in such a way that they don't move backwards or forwards. In other words, the person being pushed should move, not the person doing the pushing. This is a dynamic balance issue that sounds a little boring from the outside, but a lot of fun to play with once you get into the structural issues.

We eventually got into some real striking. Jase showed up for the first time so I paired off with him so I could jabber a bit about these concepts while striking him and letting him strike me. I explained to Jase how our dominant side usually carries the most tension. I explained this after he noticed himself that his left side was much more tense in receiving strikes than the other. I also explained that certain types of trauma can affect how the body handles strikes. I have had some digestive issues for the past year or so that began with a few occurences of incredibly sharp pain (possibly pancreatitis) that would last for twenty-four hours (bad combinations of prior stress and combining the wrong foods with alcohol). So strikes in certain areas of my body are not received very well. I constantly made reference to breathing so he would get the idea behind being able to take a strike. I also showed him the full spectrum of muscular tension when receiving a strike. Being completely tense sends shock all throughout the body and may possibly result in muscular tissue damage, while being completely loose allows the strike to penetrate the interal organs resulting in a very sickening feeling and potentially some internal injury. So in just a few minutes he had some of the tools to start playing around with receiving strikes. He seemed to like these concepts and ran with them quite well as I continued to hit him.

We did another drill which Fabian accidently began by hitting me as I was hitting Jase. The concept of transferring the momentum/energy of a strike received into giving someone else a strike is similar to the game "hot potato". So at first we lined up and the person in the back of the line started out by striking the person in front of them. That person strikes the person infront of them, and so on. Every so often we would rotate. After doing this for a while, we modified it so that everyone in the line faced the person in the back of the line. So the person in the back of the line would strike the person in front of them, and that person would have to turn around to be able to strike the person in front of them, and so on so that by the time the end of the line was reached, we would all be facing the person in the front on the line. Then the person in the front of the line would strike the person in front (technically behind) them and start all over again. After this we did some strike avoidance drills until the kids showed up for their class.

Irresistable Movement

We are finally back to a normal training schedule. Fabian and Ricky showed up on Saturday morning for about an hour of training. We did some lock/hold escaping drills based using the concept of "least resistance" as the basis for escaping. Two people would apply a lock on one person and hold the lock until that one person escapes. This drill is essentially an exploration of freedom while under the influence and possibly illusion of restriction. There is so much that can be explored, but the mind can come to a screeching halt when an already painful wrist-lock is torqued a little bit more or head/neck movement is restricted completely.

We started out doing this drill while standing, which typicall resulted in both arms and the neck being held or locked in some fashion. This gives room for a lot of default options with respect to movement: footwork, leg movement, and torso rotation can usually be employed. So in a sense, being locked up while standing allowed for some exploration in using these default options appropriately. Going to the ground creates less room for any type of movement, meaning there are few, if any, default options. In this setting, movement must be explored genuinely to take advantage of what little room one might have. Even a quarter of an inch of room (possibly less) will suffice to escape in some situations.

In addtion to moving from standing to the ground, we also begin reapplying locks and holds as soon as they were escaped until the drill became a grappling-type flow. Initially once the lock/hold was escaped, the person applying it would step away. But as we progress and the drill becomes a little easier, we increase the difficulty.

Jake is Famous

My first martial arts training partner ever, Jake, has made it into the news for his study group in Utah. Here's the article.

Blindfold Work

Working with a blindfold seems a bit eclectic and Jedi-ish. This past Saturday only Fabian and I showed up for training, so I decided to let him have the hour and a half of training (I.e. I was the attacker--though there is some training insight to be gained from this role as well.) Fabian has been curious about defending himself from fast and aggressive attacks where the attacker is protecting himself and throwing a lot of strikes all at once. Training with this type of attacker is fantastic, as being able to handle this attacker requires a great deal of precision--precision achieved unconsciously, given the speed at which these attacks come.

There are a few simple drills to start with. Typically, someone attacking in this method will have a narrow focus and direction (Straight at the victim, keeping a razor sharp focus on where the victim is moving.) One way to think of this is to visualize a plane extending vertically from the attacker's spine to the victim's spine. The attacker will (in this instance) be facing his attacker directly. Now of course, there is no limit to how an attacker will act. Sideways, from above, as they shake your hand, etc., just be clear that anything can happen. We are training specifically for one type of attack. In order to handle this type of attack, one must recognize it genuinely, not simply treat an attacker in this manner based on false data. Vladimir wrote in his Handbook that it is ok to know who is attacking and to be somewhat ready for how they are expected to attack. However, equally understand the possibility that they will attack in an unexpected manner, no matter how bizarre. Watching Vladimir move with some of the feints and tricks people try on him is fascinating. He handles the attacks as uniquely as the attacker tries to make, or sometimes he'll just step to the side while scratching his head with boredom (or setting up a "russian bitch slap"--apparently Vlad will scratch his head, looking harmless, only to pivot from the waist, swinging the scratching hand around into a nice *thwap*).

Back to the drills. The plane extending from the spine. What one can work with first off is not getting targeted--I.e. staying off center from the attacker's focus. Even a few inches off the attacker's focus can be extremely ideal (in some cases more ideal than a few feet--subtlety can go a long way). A simple footwork drill:

I had Fabian face me, the attacker. I would walk towards him and have him walk backwards. As I followed him, he would change his direction any way he liked, being observant of how I would react. Then he would try some fakes--some will work, some won't. This drill alone is very complex if one is observant enough. Subtle weight shifts, eye contact cues, audible breathing, and other factors are all involved in this drill. We went slowly until we became bored, and then went slowly for a little while longer. We picked up the intensity for a little while before slowing down and adding strikes to the drill.

At first Fabian wasn't allowed to move away from the strikes. Only use his footwork and concentrate on keeping me misaligned from my attack. Then after this he can start to rotate a little bit to use his body to redirect strikes, duck or lean back to avoid, etc. Throughout the strikes, even while going slow, I tried to throw enough intensity to make visible any tension in his movement (I.e. eyes widening, jerky protective responses in the arms, sharp breathing). After only using his body for the strikes, he is now allowed to use his arms. We did this until we were moving at maybe %60-70 speed. Nobody got hurt. A few little jaw taps (Fabian is relaxed enough to let them just pass by) and one fun one where Fabian somehow managed to headbutt my fist quite effectively (making contact before I expected it, with ensuing finger bone cracks had we been going full speed).

For the second half of this session, I had Fabian work with a blindfold and essentially start these drills all over again. Though before I did that I did some striking work on him while he stood still. What's important in striking somebody while blindfolded is to bring out just enough fear to where they can understand what's happening to them. They should fear the next strike just a little bit (so be sensitive to what your partner needs, as always). This trains them to be able to take a surprise strike genuinely without seeing it. Sometimes vision can allow for preparation before the strike hits, sometimes vision can create too much tension. The trick is to let the vision have just enough priority in how one reacts. This goes for all the senses. If one sense crowds the rest, then the person may overreact to a stimulus in that sense, or they may lack the awareness of other stimuli in other senses. Balance is key. Reacting appropriately is also key, as every situation requires a uniquely appropriate reaction.

As I took Fabian through the blindfold work, he started to loosen up (working without the vision or some other restriction can be very relaxing, just like lying down after standing for a long time can be relaxing). At the end, I had him do some work on me (still blindfolded) while I tried to attack him. This drill has always puzzled me. Sometimes his movement was almost as if he could see my strikes, and other times he would run right into my fist. I think that, as the attacker, being impartial to what happens in this drill is important to see it from a genuine perspective. There is always a temptation to either help the partner out to much or to be too mischievous. A few other people in the past have avoided almost all of my strikes in the first half of the exercise. Then, as they took a few strikes here and there, their performance seemed to degrade, and tension ensued.

After about maybe a half hour of blindfold work, I had Fabian take off the blindfold and do some more work, observing any differences in his performance. He was amazed to find that he was more relaxed in handling my strikes. In his case, his vision was causing him a lot of unnecessary tension. I was amazed as well. I haven't done a whole lot of blindfold work with people, and when I do, it's usually not in this gradual type of drill progression. Seeing the difference in his performance was good training for me--reinforcing some of these basic concepts with the body and nervous system.

Aliveness

A good article I accidently stumbled across relating to authenticity in one's MA training:

http://www.straightblastgym.com/aliveness101.html

Try Rolling Now

Last Saturday we covered the topic of interruptions and obstacles while rolling. Rolling is infinitely useful to learn. Rolling while avoiding obstacles, taking strikes, or having certain limbs restricted is infinitely useful to learn plus one. We didn't have very much time, so I divided up the rolling into two segments: without a blindfold and with. Taking away the vision is sometimes a nice way to enhance a drill, so that we can learn to trust the other senses. The rolling started out slow and from the knees, with only some pushes and using the body as an obstacle to the roller. We slowly moved into grabbing hold of various body parts and some striking while rolling. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to get into rolling from a standing position while doing these drills, but just as well. That can be a bit daunting.

Grabbing one's ankle and pulling backwards as they start to tuck and roll can really mess them up. I've landed flat on my head a few times from that happening. After a while, the realization comes that they're just sending the momentum elsewhere (an obvious realization, but difficult to see in the middle of a roll). The momentum from the roll is usually stopped, and you're left with your body falling straight down, head and face first, with the feet somewhat above the head. One way to deal with that is just to rotate around your spine with your waist and shoulders, landing on one shoulder so that the impact makes your body automatically roll to the other shoulder. This is just one possibility out of many for just one circumstance out of many. The point is that once a person gets used to rolling without interruptions psychologically, the next logical step is to throw in some interruptions. BUT, rolling without interruptions will still require much practice, even after the psychological impact of the act has been lessened. Mechanics, breathing, and form can always use work.

Cramped in the Trees

This Thursday we did most of our work in a small grove of trees. I wanted to do some of our normal drills but add the psychological factor of being in a tight space. Fortunately almost everyone in our group showed up, so we had five bodies in addition to the trees to take up what little space was left. We began with a simple movement drill. One person uses footwork to casually avoid everyone else as they walk at him. Give the person a little strike or two if they get tangled up in the people or trees. Our group is always eager to give and take strikes--we invariably start hitting eachother towards the end of a drill if we get a little bored. I think the context of our training makes giving and receiving strikes a release--and who doesn't like a free fist massage?

From this walking drill, we advanced to avoiding strikes. Constant movement was emphasized, even if just a little bit, or possibly even if it just means breathing. As the person being attacked, focusing on one person exclusively, even briefly, resulted in taking strikes from everyone else. I forgot to bring shoes, so I had to do the work in flip flops, which required much more relaxation in the footwork to keep them on. In a real scenario I might kick them off as I was being attacked, or perhaps there wouldn't be a need to. Who really knows. At this point, the awareness had to be extended to a greater extent to the trees.

While walking and avoiding my partners using just the footwork, my vision-awareness was only moving in a single plane. Avoiding strikes in addition to using footwork requires the vision-awareness to extend beyond the single plane and into the full range of movement. Not only must the body as a whole avoid the trees, but now specific parts of the body must avoid trees while avoiding punches. I came close to slamming my head into a tree while evading a strike. Fortunately we were going slow, so I was able to yank myself out of the way inches before hitting it. At full speed I definitely would have given myself a good knock.

We finally moved into doing some work in response to the strikes. We were starting to get used to the trees by now, so they weren't much of an issue. We did begin to pick up some speed though and, perhaps intuitively, moved away from the trees. We touched on the issue of handling multiple attackers. Gene suggested I focus a little less on the attackers individually--he saw that I was starting to get hit quite a bit as a result of over focusing. What's interesting is that initially, I was moving pretty well, not focusing too much, and avoiding the strikes with what felt like a pretty good flow. But as I took a strike every now and then (an inevitability with four guys punching at you), my performance began to degrade. I became more attached to the strikes I was receiving, and consequently gave more of a conscious effort to either give them back or to try and not get struck. This resulted in a turn-based focus on each of my partners. I focused on one for a little while, then another, then another, etc. And while this focus would become more intense, I would get struck from the other people I wasn't focusing on.

So towards the end, I had to will myself a bit not to focus on any of them... which was different than how I performed when I first started the drill. When I first started, the work felt effortless. As I took more and more punches, subtle frustration ensued, and I became attached to attacking and being attacked. Fearful is a good way to describe it. As I forced myself away from this attachment, my work became less specific and a little more out of control. I resorted to using more whiplike strike movements with my arms to keep them away. So the fear was still there, but my movement was more fluid, which kept them from coming in and hitting or grabbing me. When I first started, I would let them do whatever they wanted and work with it semi-effectively. I wasn't afraid of them attacking, so they weren't afraid. I would say like lambs to the slaughter, but you might laugh once you've seen me fight. At the end, I prevented them from getting close out of my own fear. That's not to say that the way I worked at the end of the drill wouldn't be effective though. There's a time and a place for it all I suppose, even a spinning back-fist to backflip high-kick combo...maybe.

I will brag on myself a little. Ricky put me in a nice armlock from behind. So I casually took a little step to the side and planted my foot on the outside of his, then tugged a little with my torso. Apparently I only moved my torso about one or two inches with this tug, while Ricky went horizontal. This gave/gives me a chance to explain the concept of body densities. Essentially what happened, or at least what I think happened, was that Ricky was pretty tense in his upper body while locking my arms behind me. This concentrated tension in his upper body left his legs and hips fairly loose and compliant. So I took a little step to the side, not enough to catch his attention, but enough to get his legs off-base. When I tugged sharply with my torso and hips, that must have drawn attention to the fact that his legs were off-balance. So the tension shifts from his upper body to his lower body while receiving the momentum from my tug. The legs, being tense, go flying up into the air (I.e. a board on a fulcrum vs. a bag of sand on a fulcrum, the hips being the fulcrum). I'm sure there's a better way to explain this, presuming I'm even remotely on base with the concept. The basic concept is that the body, in general, will only maintain focused tension in a certain area while doing work (walking, climbing trees, knitting, anything), leaving the rest of the body loose. Often in martial arts or fighting, this gets divided into the upper body being tense while the lower body is loose or vice versa. Anyhow, I'll stop going on about it. Bragging is only an indication that I still suck. I.e. These sorts of things only happen to me at the turn of every third centry. I'll shutup about them when they happen more often. But until then! ;)

Getting Grapply

Here's a few pictures of Mark and I grappling on the carpet. My burn scabs are just now starting to fall off.




















Mark taking a pretty good shot. A little slouchy, but he seems a bit bored by my efforts.



















Me rolling around without a care in the world.



















Me demonstrating how NOT to take a strike. Bent at the stomach, shoulders caved in. I think he cheated on that one with a feint--look at the devilish grin on his face.



















Me facing the consequences of not taking the strike with good form. Breathe...



















Apparently my skill increases at the opportunity to touch Mark's ass. Ehh...















Mark snarling for the armbar. Me looking like I'm going to sock him one even though we're just grappling. Oops.














Taking strikes from a sitting position.



















The face mash technique.



















Mark probably going for the choke. Me probably not paying attention.














Hitting Mark in the back a bit.

Hopefully I get some pictures of our whole group training soon.

That Object Over There is Invisible

So I wrote a little bit previously about how casual movement doesn't attract attention. We really got a good glimpse of this today while doing some movement work with a four foot staff. The drill was to give one person the stick to swing (slowly) at everyone else. There were only three of us training that day, so the drill stayed pretty clean. One moment I remember distinctly was approaching Gene from behind while he was swinging the staff. We were going very slow, so reflexes weren't an issue (I.e. I'm saying that my bad reflexes have nothing to do this). As I was approaching him to hit him, I saw the staff move over his head and towards me from above. I thought nothing of it--Gene appeared not to be paying any attention to me, which made me presume that any of his movement wouldn't be directed at me. All of a sudden: *thunk*. Wait, how did that stick hit me? I was watching it the whole time. But without picking up on Gene's intent, the movement had no harmful context, "Oh, look, it's just a stick moving towards me, big deal". This could very well be because I'm not too bright at knowing when to get the heck out of the way though. I'm always amused by my malfunctions during training. Running headlong into kicks, ducking a shot to the chest to take it in the neck, trying to redirect a chain using my neck, etc. Maybe I should write about the "invisible effect" when I get over the neural misfires.

Working with Kids

I had the opportunity to work with a good-sized group of kids (15 or so). I don't have a whole lot of experience when it comes to working with kids, but I know I can be childish, so I didn't figure I'd be terrible at it. I was actually just giving drill ideas to the instructor, Fabian, who relayed them onto the kids. So I had them start off doing rolls, starting from a kneeling position, while holding hands. Kids don't usually have a great fear of the ground, so I figured I could dive right into messier (fun) work--I didn't want to bore them. They seemed to enjoy the rolling, especially rolling backwards. I had them all hold hands to do a big group roll as well, which they actually did really well with. There was only one kid who rolled too late. He kept trying to do everything from a technical standpoint--convinced that he didn't know how to roll very well. I judged the success of the drill by the amount of giggling coming from the rolling mass of kids.

We then practiced some evasion and distance drills, which I figured to be the most boring for them, but I think it's good for developing minds to get just a small taste of the mundane. They started out in pairs, one person striking, and the other evading. From this evasion drill we worked on following the striker, then following and lightly tapping the striker. From here we split the kids into groups of five to work the same concepts but on a mass attack scale. The drill did turn out to be the most boring for them--most of the kids either didn't pay much attention or started horsing around.

Fabian said the final drill should be something fun and involving all of the kids at once. So we created a ring, fifteen feet in diameter, and had Eros stand in the middle. The kids were told to walk quickly towards Eros and hit him twice, walk to the perimeter of the ring, touch one of the bags, walk back to hit him, etc. As they did this, we slowly decreased the diameter of the ring, making the crowd more dense. Pretty soon the perimeter of the circle shrank to about five feet and the kids were getting more rambunctious (I.e. having more fun). I also showed them what relaxation can do by standing in the middle of the crowd while they all pushed on me, then relaxing through the force and having them all fall over. This actually didn't work that well since they just wanted to push me as hard as they could. So after a few unsuccessful attempts (successful for them since they didn't really understand or care what I was trying to demo, they were having too much fun pushing me over), I just relaxed as soon as they started pushing and they all went down. They definitely got a kick out of it, though I think they really just enjoyed pushing me over!

Fabian had them line up again so they could talk about what they learned. A few of the responses were really surprising (unless they were just repeating the overall concepts that they receive in every class--kids past a certain age get that knack for saying what they're taught to say, thanks public schools). Regardless, they seemed to understand some basic principles universal to most martial arts: breathing, going slow to practice and improve movement, footwork, etc.. Working with them was definitely a treat!

Indian Run Modification

This drill turned out to be fairly fun and good for striking, breathing, and concentration. We actually walked through this drill instead of running.

Form a line and begin walking or running. The person in the back strikes the person in front of them, and that person strikes the person in front of them, etc., until the person in the front of the line is struck. The person in the back who struck first must run to the front of the line in order to get struck. This drill turned out to a little challening with respect to concentration. I definitely had a hard time remembering to strike when I had been struck, or running to the front of the line after striking from the back of the line. This drill can become challenging by making the striking happen faster, running faster, hitting deeper, etc.

A few modifications of the drill were tried as well:

1) Instead of starting from the back, the person in front will turn and face the person behind them and strike them, and that person will turn around to strike the person behind them, etc. The person in front will run to the back in time to receive a strike from the person at the end of the line.

2) Do the drill while duckwalking.

Disbelief

I think what causes a lot of disbelief with respect to Systema is how casually the work is done. Ironically, it is this casualness that causes the work to be so effective. As mentioned in the previous thread, good Systema work does not draw attention to itself unecessarily. The work draws as much attention as a person opening a door. Movement executed with focused intent and tension captures the attention of the opponent well before the movement begins. The fists tighten, the eyes open a little wider, the hips rotate a certain way, there is a sharp intake of breath. All of these signals are transmitted to the opponent that activate the "oh crap, something is about to happen" reaction. With an untrained person, this will generally mean that they tense up, freeze, throw their arms in front of their face, etc. A trained person may react a little better. At any rate, whether trained, or untrained, there is a response generated to these signals. So what we all try to practice is doing our work with a certain level of casualness. This however is not an easy task to come about, as simple as it may be. One can feign casualness but lack the skill and training to do the work. One can drop the casualness and do the work with a great amount of skill and training behind them. I have seen skilled people with bagfulls of techniques unable to work effectively against tougher and less-sensitive partners. These techniques are being signaled well before their execution. And on that same note, I have seen Systemists (me!) try to act casual without the skill and training to do anything useful.

So with this level of casualness, the work can go unnoticed. This is where all the "weird" stuff can happen. Note that I used the word "can" in reference to possibility. From my experience, there is no formula for these no touch takedowns, nasty one inch punches, or anything else that are laughable when one claims to be able to do this work by force of will, chi, whatever. Mikhail and Vladimir make no such claims. It is possible to surprise someone or lock their structure so much that they fall over without any physical force (watch America's Funniest Home Videos, you'll see it happen at least once). It is possible for a little jab to affect someone's nervous system in a devastating way. Muscles are surprisingly nice at absorbing the shock of a strike and preventing it from traveling inside (everyone who has been hit hard while their guard was down has felt this inside travel... see "The Onion" post). But if the muscles are nice and soft or very tense, a little jab can go right through and fire off the nervous system, causing all sorts of funny things to happen. This is basic psychology and physiology. So on that order, I don't claim to be able to create a no touch knockdown by force of will, and I don't think any other Systema practitioners do. We can just call them "happy accidents" or "circumstance". You'll notice in watching Mikhail that he is very physical with some, and very psychological with others. He is sensitive to how people function. There is nothing magical about the work he does. I cannot emphasize this enough.

So anyways, we learn a little bit about how the body works, rather than memorize techniques for doing specific things--functional, not robotic. We learn to relax starting with our breath. We learn to move on the foundations of our breath. We become comfortable with being uncomfortable--taking strikes, doing frustratingly sensitive work, five minute pushups, talking to God when we don't want to, etc. We are trying to approach something from many different directions, as many as there are humanly possible (which is why Systema is described as functioning on all levels of human ability). Where are we going? I like to think of it as getting closer to God, others like to think of it as heading towards freedom, others refer to it as "going home", and others simply do the work and don't waste their time philosophizing too much. So our training keeps moving and evolving, because there is so much to do, and it seems so dizzyingly complex from the outside. Those moments of clarity, that come and go during training, require the intellectual capacity of a fly.

Footwork Fandango

Our last two training sessions have involved manipulating and disrupting our partner's footwork. Our own intent very quickly becomes an inhibiting factor to doing the work in that area. Everyone has a natural sense of how to recover balance and regain stable footing. Intent makes this occur more naturally. If I have strong intentions of doing a leg sweep type move on my partner, I will often project this intent well before I actually execute the movement. This projection is easily and often unconsciously picked up by my partner, who will shift their weight or move in such a way that I won't be able to do what I intended to do. I would imagine that from here, without realizing how intent is another dimension of work, that this problem would be solved by more complex itentions (fake leg sweep to groin kick, etc.) And finally, instead of doing any work, we all start trying to work various probabilities out on a piece of graph paper.

Relaxed movement is excellent at hiding, magnifying, or simply not working at all with intent. Those casual movements pass us by without notice. Pickpockets excel here. No one notices very much because the movements are very normal and do not attract attention. Techniques must be learned, and if they must be learned, then there must be some visible intent in using them. I'm sure that as training in these techniques goes on, the conscious thought process of execution becomes quicker and less noticeable, but that takes many years. Even after such training, there is still intent. This is not to say that technique is bad or wrong, it has its context in training. Why not just take the quick route and learn to simply do the work required (kick someone's leg out from underneath them, hit the arm holding the knife as the grip weakens for a moment, etc.)?

This is the type of work we've been doing. Disrupting the footwork becomes very difficult when attempting to do it from a mechanically timed perspective. And in this difficulty, more important matters (a knife coming for the throat) tend to be ignored. The first drill we did was to have someone kneel while the rest of the group walks around them punching eachother to take the focus off of the kneeling person. The kneeling person is simply there to observe and play. An easy trap in this drill is to try and take everyone down that walks past. The only goal is to observe. Push a little here, see what happens. Pull there, oops, that didn't work. Don't necessarily make mental notes of the observations--just get comfortable playing around with the feet and legs as they go by. From here, stand up, and do the same thing, but use the feet instead of the hands to push the feet/legs around. Every once in a while, a take down will happen with just a little push to someone's leg or foot. Don't get used to this happening, but do realize that even little movements can become effective in a gigantic way.

Now add an element of stress into the picture. The people that were walking around hitting eachother are now trying to hit you. Again, keep playing while escaping the strikes. Don't do anything with the strikes or the rest of their body other than escape them and play with their footwork. Keep observing what happens to their body with these little kicks. When this drill becomes comfortable, continue to break the form in other ways once you have disrupted their footwork. Don't necessarily get stuck in the pattern of "disrupt the footwork, then disrupt the rest of the form". You can break other aspects of their form first, then disrupt the footwork, then back to breaking the form... any combination will be fine. Work simultaneously on footwork disruption and other parts of the body. Be creative and keep intent out of the picture for now. Another drill that might enhance this work is the distance drill:

Have your partner walk at you. Move out of the way casually and follow them at a certain distance. This distance should be somewhere in the area of the "middle" distance. Vladimir describes this middle distance as being not so close that one is cramped for space, and not so far away that no work can be done. One way to measure this distance is to find where you are most comfortable striking somebody front to front. Too far away and you'll have to reach for it, too close and the strike will be less effective.

River Training

Mark and I did some training in the river today. What made the training a little more interesting was the significant strenth of the current. Any takedowns, strikes, or movement in general had to be adjusted to work with the current. Since the water was thigh deep, the current had the greatest affect on one's footwork. Some of our work would result in us both falling to the ground due to too much focus on breaking the structure, etc. The density of the water prevented our feet from regaining any balance disrupted by the current. Regaining balance in the water with or without a current seems to be one of the significant differences between training on the land and in the water.

A fun drill Mark came up with was avoiding all the plant debris floating by while striking eachother. Other drills involved being held and struck underwater. I found that being brought up momentarily then shoved back down was the most difficult to deal with psychologically. Strikes, chokes, and being crammed pretty hard against the bottom were relaxing until I started to run out of air. I'm advanced SCUBA certified and I've always been comfortable in the water, so a lot of the drills were no less intense than all the roughhousing I did in the water as a kid. One of my favorite SCUBA exercises is "dive and don", as it is the most difficult for me to do:

Wade out into at least ten feet of water with a mask, fins, and weight belt. Swim down to the bottom and weigh your fins and mask down with the belt. Come back up. Catch your breath and then swim back down. Put on your fins and mask at the bottom, then clear your mask (tilt your head back about 45 degrees, pull the bottom of your mask away from your face about half an inch, and blow out with your nose). Swim to the surface.

This exercise is pivotal in learning how to stay calm while doing a task underwater. Initially, most will rush down to the bottom and usually panic before they even get to their mask and struggle back up to the surface. I thought I figured it out the first time by not rushing. So I slowly and calmly swam down to the bottom, put on my fins, then panicked before I could get my mask on and struggled back up to the surface. It took me three or four tries before I could actually do the exercise, and even then my actions had some panic in them. Our instructor demo'ed this exercise for us by going down, putting on all the gear, clearing his mask, then swimming up halfway, and hanging out there for another twenty seconds.

Anyhow, back to training, though there isn't much more to it. We did a few more exercises in the water. One fun one was receiving an "onion" then getting dunked, held under, and punched some more. We definitely concentrated more on the psychological aspects of the water rather than the mechanics of doing work in the water.

The Onion

After our meeting today, we were talking a little bit about how strikes blossom, "like a flower", as our friend Brad described after he had finished whacking us all a bit. Eros described the internal feeling of a deep strike getting stuck in the body as an onion rather than a flower--he had just gotten hit and had that lingering internal discomfort (he had a slight look of disgust on his face when he said the word "onion"). I think he created a good piece of terminology for us--I will see if I can do the word justice with a hastily created analogy:

Onions have layers (like parfaits, as Eddie Murphy points out in Shrek). Onions also release a nasty vapor when peeling away the layers, causing the eyes to tear up. Onions only cook well when peeled into their layers--e.g. sautee-ing onions with a steak. Ok, I got nothing... sorry. Nevertheless, "onion" will be added into our study group's Systema dictionary.

Manipulating the Structure

In Gene's class on Friday and our group meeting today, we covered some good ground on manipulating the structure with respect to breathing--both in us and our partners. We worked on manipulating the structure with pushes, strikes, joint locks/shearing, and a little bit of psychological work if the situation presented itself. In today's group, we discussed the simplicity of this type of work--If the leg needs a push, push it. The mind can become locked away from the clarity required to work as though "buttering the toast". All of the guys we're training with come from previous martial arts backgrounds, and so they feel that the reality of the situation is skewed by their previous training wanting to impose its own will--often apart from reality. I think all of them have felt the ease of doing good work. It comes and goes to some extent for all of us, but we get exposed to a higher standard when we feel (and let) ourselves do the work without inconsequential effort. Exposure to that standard keeps us training--we've all tasted a little bit of freedom in doing this type of physical work.

From my perspective, without any previous martial arts background, the reality of the situation is skewed by my own frustrations. There are situations where I shut down and feel very inept. The funny thing is that some of these situations are where my partner is waiting or frozen in a vulnerable position for me to work on him. One example is where my partner is bent over in somewhat of a squatting position with their head towards me. A little neck crank or push away from me on their head are just a few examples of how easy a take down might be in this situation. I seem to gravitate towards the most difficult or impossible way to take them down. I am trying to approach this from two directions: 1) I remind myself that I don't always see the easiest option, and try to train in such a way that I explore and 2) I do my breathing, praying, pushups, living, etc. I lack the discernment to tell whether these situations where I go brain-dead are from lack of training experience or stem from some muddle in the psyche. Either way, there seems to be a little progression out of this phase, so I'm happy enough. I'm actually extremely happy for our little group. It's grown since I've been away all summer (Gene is a good salesman). Everyone seems interested and seems to enjoy the work.

Striking with the Staff

Mark and I did some striking work with a wooden staff. For the past five or six months, I've had some issues with tension building on different areas in the right side of my body--neck, shoulders, abs, and back. The staff strike seems to resonate through my body much differently than a strike with a fist would. A strike with a staff takes a much narrower pathway while going through, whereas a deep strike with a fist will expand through the body a little more. There are exceptions to this though. Anyhow, with one of the staff strikes to my back, I noticed how sharply it traveled up the right back muscle that runs parallel to my spine. I felt as though I was struck pretty squarely in the back. However, the difference in tension on the two sides of my body was easily observed in how the impact traveled.

The last few strikes with the staff are of course always the best. We both allowed the last two strikes to get inside to really work the breathing (maybe tomorrow we will work on getting the strikes inside whether we want them to or not *evil grin*). The very last strike to my solar plexus with the staff was good. It went straight through me with a little bit of breathing and actually accumulated in my back, almost in the exact shape of where I was hit in the front--no expansion of impact, just narrow travel from the front to the back in the shape of the staff. I tried to breathe it out of my back, but I couldn't get the hang of it. I had Mark whack me a few times in that spot to help my breathing and relaxation in the area along. That seemed to do the trick--one good strike to the back and the nasty accumulation of the impact was gone.

Training Log

I will be keeping a weekly account of training on here. Nothing fancy or complicated--just things that I find to be of interest.